Lousybreed
Well-Known Member
Their website claims that they can get Tonga SPS colonies, like 25 for $880.....And Australian too. Anyone use them?
Has anyone ordered a box of acros from Livestock USA?
- Thread starter Lousybreed
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joseserrano
2500 Club Member
That doesn’t sound right. They are more then that wholesale and even directly imported.
OP
OP
Lousybreed
Well-Known Member
So they are legit? Has anyone ordered from them lately?
You might check out this thread - https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/i...es-for-anyone-interested.394159/#post-4741006
I just did a search in this community & this is one thread I found.
I just did a search in this community & this is one thread I found.
They are legit.
I have never ordered coral from them and do not know anyone who has.
Acros would probably be of lesser quality than they used to be because of the shut down in Indo and Fiji.
I have never ordered coral from them and do not know anyone who has.
Acros would probably be of lesser quality than they used to be because of the shut down in Indo and Fiji.
What? That's how much corals cost when transhipped.
It will take a while to get any corals from him since the shutdown, there are probably people who prepaid and are waiting, especially for the Aussie acros.
Velcro
2500 Club Member
Thought indo was shipping again.
Wholesale is more expensive than transhipped (which is directly imported but shipped again from Cali to the east coast). Because wholesale is just ordering from people who house the transhipped colonies, they have to make money.
The tonga stuff is going to be like any other box of acros, a bunch of decent average tank fillers and maybe two really nice or harder to find colonies. But they won't be as nice as the Bali colonies were, just maybe a few more diverse species because of the area. I miss the Indo stuff so much! There was some really beautiful pieces coming just before they got shutdown.
If you can house transhipped acros, example, you have a seperate mature tank with strong flow and halides close to the water to keep them from changing color or dying, I would contact this guy and see what he says. There are still people out there that don't take advantage of us, but very few.
They only way to make new frags more affordable is if more of us go about getting more wild and maricultured colonies and propagating them. This way we get the newer stuff and can afford to spread the fragments around for a much cheaper price. The problem is the stigma attached to Mari and wild corals. People have problems with them because they are bought from places that can't keep them long term and or they have been shipped three or more times before they get them, or they don't have the right light to keep them happy. You won't understand how easy the transhipped acros are to care for until you have a stable mature system to add them to where you can observe them easily. The people who get them from the importers in Cali have it twice as good because things aren't shipped twice in a row.
The main thing I hate about this hobby are the lies you hear from people, especially local fish stores. I have often been told that a certain acropora is crazy expensive and given some crazy story as to why. When it's just an average maricultured acro they paid 30 to 40 bucks for. Here are some of the stories I get from local fish stores and or vendors to try and bank off a cheap coral
"We got this piece from one of our special divers who goes very deep and finds stuff no one sees"
"We got this one from our collector who goes to reefs no one knows about"
"This piece was collected specialy upon my request, it will color up and be very nice, it was expensive"
Most likely none of these statements are true.
The tonga stuff is going to be like any other box of acros, a bunch of decent average tank fillers and maybe two really nice or harder to find colonies. But they won't be as nice as the Bali colonies were, just maybe a few more diverse species because of the area. I miss the Indo stuff so much! There was some really beautiful pieces coming just before they got shutdown.
If you can house transhipped acros, example, you have a seperate mature tank with strong flow and halides close to the water to keep them from changing color or dying, I would contact this guy and see what he says. There are still people out there that don't take advantage of us, but very few.
They only way to make new frags more affordable is if more of us go about getting more wild and maricultured colonies and propagating them. This way we get the newer stuff and can afford to spread the fragments around for a much cheaper price. The problem is the stigma attached to Mari and wild corals. People have problems with them because they are bought from places that can't keep them long term and or they have been shipped three or more times before they get them, or they don't have the right light to keep them happy. You won't understand how easy the transhipped acros are to care for until you have a stable mature system to add them to where you can observe them easily. The people who get them from the importers in Cali have it twice as good because things aren't shipped twice in a row.
The main thing I hate about this hobby are the lies you hear from people, especially local fish stores. I have often been told that a certain acropora is crazy expensive and given some crazy story as to why. When it's just an average maricultured acro they paid 30 to 40 bucks for. Here are some of the stories I get from local fish stores and or vendors to try and bank off a cheap coral
"We got this piece from one of our special divers who goes very deep and finds stuff no one sees"
"We got this one from our collector who goes to reefs no one knows about"
"This piece was collected specialy upon my request, it will color up and be very nice, it was expensive"
Most likely none of these statements are true.
I have not heard this. The ban was lifted but they are still not allowed to get the cites to ship.
Velcro
2500 Club Member
My bad, I misinterpreted what I read then.
It was supposed to but never happened.
Even if it opens it will most likely be closed again anyway.
Susi as long as she has power will never let it happen.
Australia will be the next to close. Some of those parties who want us closed down have now started to push Australia from what I hear.
Yeah I got so excited and then once I read what was really happening I was quickly disappointed again.
Hopefully Indo opens up for at least a decent period of time and soon. The hobby needs it. I wonder how it would be if everything got shut down....?
Hopefully Indo opens up for at least a decent period of time and soon. The hobby needs it. I wonder how it would be if everything got shut down....?
The hobby would shrink.. We would loose allot of the people that follow trends. With no new different corals coming in for the hobby those people would get board.
I think prices would rise initially and drop eventually and than level out as places went out of business fighting for the smaller piece of the pie.
There obviously would be very few trendy/collector corals.
Some of these trendy corals come from boxes like in this thread.
I think diversity of corals would get much smaller because most places will only aquaculture those that sell the best.
I think things would be worse if the trend in fish happens where we see more fish bans.
Corals are easy to propagate but fish and inverts are hard except for a handful. What I fear is fish breeding is so far behind that if the hobby shrinks before they have time to figure out how to breed some of the fish in any quantity they will not. Why invest in breeding new fish in a shrinking hobby.
As soon as coral is banned they will go after the fish.. I think once all the permit expire in Hawaii and the situation is not fixed the hobby is in for a world of hurt.
I do not think it will ever open again anyway.. I think Indonesia coral ban will hurt fish exports as collectors that did both go out of business and the same with distribution.
I also think Indonesia will ban fish soon.
All opinion though so who knows.
Aussie is still shipping. So is Tonga. livestockusa is good. You have to go freight to a more major airport. You usually have to pay the freight from LA to your airport on top of what they charge you.
You can get AQ or wild from them.
They are good communicators. Call them if you want more info. I used to order a lot of rock from them and even some boxes of wild acropora... but tanks are full now.
You can get AQ or wild from them.
They are good communicators. Call them if you want more info. I used to order a lot of rock from them and even some boxes of wild acropora... but tanks are full now.
I've ordered live rock from Mitch several times, never acros (I'm too picky and like aqua-cultured corals). He was super easy to work with and great communicator. Everything was very legit.
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